Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Last night the high-flying Flyers of Philly, with recent wins against Ottawa and Carolina under their belts, ran into a buzz saw called the Boston Bruins. The B's outplayed Philly in all areas of the game: hitting, fighting, passing, scoring, defense, and goaltending. The Bruins completely outclassed them. The Flyers, on the other hand, took cheap shots at Bruin players, one of which resulted in Andrew Alberts leaving the game with a head injury.

A class act the Flyers are not.

The sweetest sound I've heard in some time: the Philly fans booing their team while the Bruins dominated them in their own zone. Twice.

The sickest sound: a loud contingent of Philly fans booing as Andrew Alberts finally got to his feet after being knocked unconscious by a vicious illegal hit to the head.

A class act the Philly fans are not.

It's time the league sent a message about these reckless dangerous hits. If that wasn't clear to some people before last night, I hope it is now apparent. It is up to the coaches and ultimately the management to say to their players that these dangerous cheap shots are not to be tolerated. They have clearly failed to do this in Philly and they (the coaches and management) must be held accountable by the NHL before someone gets killed.

Saturday, November 10, 2007

I knew that the Bruins would face adversity sooner or later. It happens to all teams during the course of the season. I had simply hoped that it would come later, after they had built some confidence. But that was not meant to be. Adversity has come at the worst possible time: right as the Bruins are in the midst of a critical series of games against their division rivals.

The adversity? Major acquisition of the summer Manny Fernandez has been placed on IR . But he was playing poorly anyhow. Shawn Thornton, another summer acquisition, joins him. Arron Ward, one of the teams top blue-liners, is out with a concussion. And of course, worst of all, Partice Bergeron, who was called the "heart and soul of the team" by a teammate, is out indefinitely with a major concussion. Toss in the fact that out of their last four critical games there have been no wins and things look pretty bleak. The only thing that has gotten them this far has been effort, but can they keep that up without winning? I mean, they played very well against the league-leading Sens, but the bottom line is they lost both games. How long can they keep it up?

So where does that leave the team? Pretty much back where they were last year. I think of last year's Bruins in three separate phases. When the season began they were getting to know one another and their new coaches/system. They started horribly. Their goaltending was shaky at best. But they improved and eventually put together a good run. But a hockey season is a sort of race to see who can keep getting better, and the Bruins had peaked. The rest of the league passed them by and when that became obvious they collapsed. This is why I think people got the wrong impression about the team from looking at the stats. Looking at the stats for the entire season it is the last part that dominates (when the players had given up). Their defensive stats were terrible, and the goaltending stats were less than stellar. But forgetting for a moment the question of motivation when things go badly and the need to improve throughout the entire season (things that can be blamed on the coaching staff to a large extent), when I think about last year's team I think about that middle period when they were rolling. During that time they had spectacular goaltending, they played solid defense, and were able to win game after game by one goal. One goal. Often in overtime or the shootout. That's a very thin line between winning and losing and it was one they could not stay on the right side of forever.

So here we are with pretty much the same team: excellent goaltending, very good defense, but they can't score! Once again we have PJ on the top line. Just as last year, time and again they hold the other team to 1-2 goals and still manage to lose. Their forecheck improved this year (Bergeron's in particular, and PJ has been improving a lot), but it isn't enough.

I said over the summer that my number one wish for the Bruins was that they could establish just one strong scoring line. I felt that with a left-shooting power forward to go with Savvy and Muzz, they had the chance to have one of the most productive scoring lines in the league. Who knows, maybe Muzz would have come out flat anyhow. Or maybe some new blood would have brought him back into form. We'll never know for sure. I just wish Chiarelli had seen it my way and spent the Fenandez cap space on a power forward. If this team scores 3-4 goals per game it is juggernaut. At 1-2 goals per game it is barely holding on, and heaven forbid that something happens to Thomas, because he's the only thing keeping them from being blown out 4-1 every time.

There is so much right about this team. They have huge talent and play hard for their coach, but they don't seem to have the right mix of players. The only hope I see for this team this year is to somehow acquire a forward that will get them scoring again. And you watch, Chiarelli will soon be claiming that the Bruins need help up front. But even with the cap space due to the players on IR, doing so at this point in the season would seem rather difficult. It would have been so much easier last summer.

I hope that Bergeron cames back this season and can play up to his potential. I expect that Fernandez will eventually get it together, although goaltenders can be really hard to figure. We've seen goaltendeers walz into town before only to see their career end. I am sure that Muzz will break out of his scoring slump. Muzz is in fact playing well, he's just not scoring.

But will any of that be enough? Will I be pleasantly surprised to discover that this team has the will to fight through the adversity and start winning again? The last time the coach complained they weren't scoring they answered with a five goal game, so who knows? Time will tell. But it doesn't look so good right now...

Monday, November 5, 2007

I have been tempted to write something about how the Bruins are doing so far this season several times, but each time I have decided to wait a bit longer before saying anything. But after the home-and-home series against the Sens I think the time may be right.

This was a critical set of games. My big worry going in was that the young Bruins would be obviously outclassed and it would sting them so badly that they would lose their edge, possibly to never recover. That didn't happen. Even though they lost both games the Bruins can hold their head's high because they did show they could play with the best. My only disappointment was the shootout in last night's game. I thought Timmy had played perhaps his best NHL game ever. All night long you could hear that big "boom" as the puck came off his pads. The traffic in front of him was thick yet time and again he somehow saw the puck and stopped it. His rebounds were controlled. His glove hand was fast and sharp. In the two games he allowed only four goals on 81 shots (0.951). The Sens had to earn every single goal. So for Timmy to give up two back to back goals to start the shootout was a real disappointment. I wouldn't be surprised if fatigue wasn't a factor. He had to work very hard both games.

Overall the team played very well. Everyone contributed, and unlike last year everyone hustled nearly non-stop. There were only a few times when they let up but were able to recover quickly. One of those did lead to the Ottawa goal last night though. The Bruins were on the PP and as they began to set up in the offensive zone I knew right away they were in trouble because they had lost their jump. Just for a few seconds. I was very impressed by how the Sens smelled that and immediately took advantage of it to score a shorty.

Anyhow, I think it is safe to say that the Bruins are for real. If they play any other team in the league with the sort of hustle they showed against the Sens they will come out the winner. The next challenge (and there is always a next one) is to see if they can sustain that hustle against the other teams in their division. That, and they are going to need to get Timmy some help in goal. Unfortunately, as Fernandez discovered, Timmy's a tough act to follow.

About Me

Been a Bruins fan since '71 when as a young teen I found myself living in Canada. Hockey fever took hold and who could possibly not love the Bruins teams of those years? Being unfailingly loyal, here I am--still a fan.